Wreckage lies on the ground following the attack in the Doğubeyazıt district of Agri province in Turkey.
Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Two Turkish soldiers have been killed and dozens wounded in a suicide attack blamed on Kurdish militants, as Ankara kept up its air campaign against rebel bases in northern Iraq.

The attack in the Doğubayazıt district of Turkey’s eastern Ağrı province is the first time Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) militants have been accused of staging a suicide attack in the current crisis, amid an escalating cycle of violence.

Ankara has launched a two-pronged anti-terror offensive against Islamic State jihadis in Syria and PKK militants based in northern Iraq after a wave of attacks inside Turkey.

So far the bombardments have focused far more on the Kurdish rebels – with Turkish official media claiming that 260 suspected PKK members have been killed – and the militants have retaliated inside Turkey.

There is also controversy over possible civilian casualties in the Turkish bombings, while local Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq on Saturday urged the PKK to spare civilians.

The suspected PKK suicide bomber drove a tractor laden with two tons of explosives up to the military station in the Doğubayazıt district, the official Anatolia news agency reported, quoting the local governor’s office. Two soldiers were killed and 31 wounded, four of them seriously, the army said.

The soldiers were deployed with the local Jandarma, a branch of the army that looks after internal security in Turkey. Such was the power of the blast that houses in a village several-hundred metres away were hit by debris and several villagers slightly injured, Dogan news agency said.

PKK militants who took part in the operation also launched ambushes on the roads to prevent medical teams reaching the scene before fleeing in the direction of Mount Ararat, it added.

The PKK’s insurgency, demanding greater rights and powers for Turkey’s Kurdish minority, has claimed tens of thousands of lives since it began more than 30 years ago. Recent fighting has left a 2013 ceasefire in tatters.

At least 17 members of the security forces have been killed in attacks blamed on the PKK since the crisis erupted last week.

The attacks are the most severe in Turkey since the 2013 ceasefire, which raised hopes of finding a peace deal and sealing a historic reconciliation between the modern Turkish state with Kurds, by far its largest minority.

Turkey’s Kurdish militants have sought cover in neighbouring northern Iraq, where the presence of the PKK has long been tolerated in Iraq’s Kurdish-ruled region. More fighters also crossed into the area from Turkey as part of the 2013 ceasefire.